There is a great disturbance in the Force

[The_Snowman]

There seems to a lot of confusion about how to execute a scalping trade; I have been playing around with this today - DEMO account ONLY.
Started off real good but things went off track as I had problems with my platform, then problems with the software I use to execute trades, but I see some potential, and many improvements to fix those problems

Some details -

- 2 pip TP (take profit) and 20 pip SL (stop loss)

- switched to 3 pip TP and 15 pip SL later

- Signals from 5 minutes chart

- had multiple trades open at same time, on same currency

- used 16 pairs

- used 0.1 Mini lot, but the important number is the PIPS

- first 50+ trades before Europe open

Hope TRO allows members to start new topics?

I will post this to check and then some screens shots with more details

The heading I used "There is a great disturbance in the Force" is the voice alert I use in Metatrader to tell me when the RAT ZONE give signal

[The_Snowman]

You got this far, here are trades 26-50, 51-75, and 76-100

[trueblueTEX]

can you post the equity graph?

[The_Snowman]

can you post the equity graph?

No, and I'll tell you why -

1. It is a little down today which is what you want to see

2. It is a DEMO as I mentioned

3. It is an experiment, ie, in no way a full trading method or system

4. I just want to discuss the signals and methods with other traders using the same indicators - once the method is proven, profits will come

5. So many ways to improve the profitability which I will post later

Also, I will post some charts, meanwhile you can see charts I posted in Drain the Banks thread

[The_Snowman]

Saturday morning: Here are some of the charts I promised. More on yesterdays' scalping experiment; I was skeptical of Rat Trading, and from the questions that TRO gets, I can see that many are. Either they do not understand either the entry, the exit, or the method entirely. Most are puzzled because they think the Rat Zone will tell them the exact top or bottom for the day - well, it will, eventually, but you have to figure out exactly when that is!

I set out to see if it could work, maybe even to prove to myself at least it wouldn't work; sometimes it doesn't, but what I really got out of the exercise is a better understanding of price action, it is all starting to come together.

So, all the trades posted were taken without even looking at the chart to see what was happening, so the indicator was showing at least a temporary top or bottom, long enough for a scalp.

This series of charts shows how more in depth analysis might help one enter a position and gain a longer term trade from, although this one doesn't do that. The key would be to find a pair that was in a strong trend, having a retracement, finding the end of that retracement and then riding the trend back in the original direction.

Comments, criticism, critiques and questions welcomed, thanks, John

[The_Snowman]

Just another chart before I go out, this was posted by TRO in the Drain The Banks thread, I got some (demo) cheese, but more importantly, was able to see the real price action, can you?

[The_Snowman]

Does any one know of a TRO indicator that give the Average Daily Range, both current day and previous days? This chart is an example of what I mean?

Obviously it changes from the start of the day, and during the day as it reacts to the price, but it is handy to know the average range a currency will move during a normal day's trading, and where price is in today's trading.

[newschool]

It's not about the pips, or the lots, the only thing that counts is the money $.

Except if your goal is to buy a new radio, scalping should be traded with high leverage.

In the end there are 2 global ways to trade and make a profit :
- if you are correct (win) substantially more than 50% of the trades, you can have a TP tighter (or equal) than the SL (spread included)
- if your edge is not that good, 50% and less, then you need to have a strategy with a bigger TP than your SL.

PS: I quickly did the math and you approx made +170$ but -185$, so work just a little more on your edge, then you can high leverage and transforms those 15$ difference into 1500$ each day...

[The_Snowman]

Hey newschool,

Thanks for the encouragement, I certainly will take that into consideration and work it into my plan.

As I said, all those trades were pretty much just fired off by clicking on the mouse when I heard the message; there is so much room for improvement, I can hardly wait to trade again. Unfortunately I am back out to the desert tomorrow for 2 weeks, so it will have to wait.

One thing I want to encourage other traders to see in regards to Trade Like A Rat, especially the ones that berate TRO for not giving exact rules for his trading indicators, is to give them a go. I did, and by doing that, is has really given me the opportunity to learn so much very quickly about how price action moves.

Thanks, John

[vladv]

The_Snowman,can you share your indicators & template used in the above screenshots,please!?Thanks a lot.